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Sometimes when you’ve had a series of disappointing things happen, you can get in the habit of expecting more of what you already have.

I used to be like that. My motto was, “If you don’t expect anything good to happen, then you won’t be disappointed when it doesn’t.”

But this isn’t how God wants us to live!

According to Joyce Meyer. You all know her and her history right??? she always using her past and experience as an example during her preachings. When she was sexually abused as a child by her father, she grew up and became an adult who was really negative. Even after she had a strong relationship with God, she still struggled with this for a while.

Then one morning, she was standing in the bathroom and she remember noticing this evil presence around her. It wasn’t new…she realized she had always felt it. It made her think,What bad thing is going to happen next?

She then asked God what this feeling was.He spoke to her heart and said, “Evil forebodings.”

Later, she found Proverbs 15:15, which says, All the days of the desponding and afflicted are made evil [by anxious thoughts and forebodings], but he who has a glad heart has a continual feast [regardless of circumstances] (AMPC).

Once she read this verse, she realized what it meant. An ‘evil foreboding” is the fear of something bad happening when nothing was going wrong.

Then she looked back and saw how it affected her different times in the past…

For example, the night her husband Dave asked her to marry him, he said he needed to talk to her about something. She actually thought he was going to break up with her because she always expected the negative! True story from Joyce Meyer.

That’s exactly what Satan wants you to do. He wants you to expect something bad and to become fearful of the “what ifs.”

Fearis the opposite offaith, and it takes faith to accept anything good in our lives.

When she was expecting something bad to happen, her expectation was from Satan. If we are not careful, this expectation will open the door to Satan’s evil plans for our lives by waiting for bad things.

But when we expectgoodthings, we open the door to God’s plans (seeLamentations 3:25).

God can’t wait to be good to you…

God is good. Everything He does is good and wonderful. In fact, God wants to do something outrageously wonderful in your life every moment of every day…but you have to be ready and expect it to happen.

Isaiah 30:18 (AMPC) says it perfectly: Therefore the Lord [earnestly] waits [expecting, looking, and longing] to be gracious to you; and therefore He lifts Himself up, that He may have mercy on you and show loving-kindness to you…. Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are all those who [earnestly] wait for Him, who expect and look and long for Him…

God is looking and longing for someone who’s waiting for Him to be good to them. God wants to be good to you, but you have to be expecting Him to move in your life!

Today is your day to start believing something good is going to happen to you! God is working in your life right now, and when you get your breakthrough, it will be the result of what God has been doing for a long time.

I’ve gotten into a habit of saying something almost every day of my life, and I encourage you to do the same. Declare:

“God is good, and something good is going to happen to me today!”

Whether you see it or feel it or not, keep praying and expecting because God is longing to be gracious and good to you!

Hi, thanks for stopping by to read my post today. I was surfing the internet and saw this beautiful piece, I couldn’t read it alone but to also share with you guys on my platform.

Most people would agree that we have a lot to be thankful for. After all, many of us live a lifestyle full of conveniences…

We live in comfortable homes, wear nice clothes, and have reliable transportation.

We have no shortage of clean water or healthy food.

We have access to quality healthcare and education, and basically live a good life with a lot of freedom, safety and security.

While it’s easy to take these wonderful blessings for granted—and begin to focus on what wedon’thave—millions of people around the world live without the basic necessities of life.

I’ll never forget the time one of our sons went on a weekend outreach with a team of people to help the homeless. It was obvious that the experience touched him deeply. He called me and said:

“If I ever complain again, please knock me down for being so stupid!”

After he saw how some people were living, he was appalled at how he had complained about small things in his own life.

Just think about it…

We can complain about trivial things like cleaning the house. However, those without a place to live wouldloveto have a house to clean.

Or have you ever complained about the regular costs of maintaining your vehicle? I’m sure we’ve all had our day ruined by an unexpected repair. However, a person without transportationdreamsabout having a car to drive.

It is so easy to forget how blessed we are! That’s why maintaining an attitude of gratitude is something we need to do on purpose.

This “little thing” can make a big difference…

I want you to try something. As you go about your day, make a point to be grateful for the things you may otherwise not even notice.

For instance, I really like coffee. Sometimes I take a moment in the morning to thank God for this “little thing” that brings me joy and comfort.

Or how about the blessing of having hot water? It’s something we can easily take for granted, but it makes our lives so much better!

As you begin to thank God for the seemingly small things in your life, it will help you to focus on the positive and everything you do have. As result, you will also be much happier!

Invite God into everything you do…

One of the best things we can do throughout the day is praise God while we work.

No matter what you’re trying to build—your home, your marriage, your business, financial security, or even an exercise plan—you can worship God as you work.

At my conferences, I make sure to be in the service as soon as the praise and worship begins because I love to be in God’s presence. In fact, before I speak to an audience, I make sure I have entered into praise and worship.

I want to fix my thoughts on God, thank Him for what He’s done in my life and for the words He’s giving me to speak, and I want to give Him praise for everything else He’s going to do.

We need to praise God because we love Him. It actually draws us closer to Him, which helps us hear the Word clearly, receive it, and hold on to it through faith.

This will help you to see more clearly…

Giving thanks throughout the day is simply a way to show God how grateful we are for who He is.

Regularly giving thanks to God not only helps us fully realize how He’s working in our lives, it gives us a new perspective—our mind is renewed, our attitude is improved, and we are filled with joy (seePsalm 16:11).

I am truly amazed at how two people can have the exact same circumstances, however one person can be negative, dissatisfied and hopeless while the other is optimistic and full of joy!

Praise makes all of the difference. Living life with a heart of gratitude for who God is and what He has done for us lifts our burdens and causes us to see everything in a different light.

Each moment that we’re given is a precious gift from God. We can choose to have a thankful attitude and live each moment full of joy…simply because God is good.

God gives us hopes and dreams for certain things to happen in our lives, but He doesn’t always allow us to see the exact timing of His plan. Although frustrating, not knowing the exact timing is often what keeps us in the program. There are times when we might give up if we knew how long it was going to take, but when we accept God’s timing, we can learn to live in hope and enjoy our lives while God is working on our problems. We know that God’s plan for our lives is good, and when we entrust ourselves to Him, we can experience total peace and happiness.

The book of Genesis tells the story of Joseph, who waited many years for the fulfillment of the dream God had given him. He was falsely accused and imprisoned before the time came for him to do what God had shown him he was to do. Exodus 13:17-18 tells us that God led the Israelites the longer, harder way on their journey to the Promised Land because He knew they were not yet ready to go in. There had to be time for their training, and they had to go through some very trying situations. They wasted a lot of time wondering about God’s timing, but God never failed to take care of them and show them what He wanted them to do. The same is true in our lives. It was many years after I received my call from God in February of 1976 before I finally began to see major fulfillment of what God had called me to do. God’s training period simply requires us to do what He tells us to do when He tells us to do it…without questioning or trying to figure everything out.

Talking about doing something is easy. But just hearing about it is not going to change our lives. It’s doing the Word, living it out day-by-day, that brings progress in our lives. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does (James 1:25NASB).

Let’s choose to be doers of the Word so that progress and blessing come into our lives. And let’s be willing to push through the pain of opposition, because there’s no such thing as a drive-thru breakthrough. With steadfast determination and patience, we will continually move forward in our walk with God.

As God works through us, He encourages us to be steadfast, stable and determined to never give up. We need to make up our minds that we will never give up when facing opposition. We may not hit it right every time or the first time, but we shouldn’t quit.

Have you ever been around people who have so much going for them, yet don’t do anything with their life? Then there are others who don’t have much at all going for them, and they end up doing great things. It’s really not about natural gifting and talent. It’s really about being determined to do something with what we do have.

Remember, it’s not about what we don’t have; it’s about being determined to never, ever, ever give up.

We all want good things to happen in our lives, but too often we want it now…not later. When it doesn’t happen that way, we are tempted to ask, “When, God, when?” Most of us need to grow in the area of trusting God instead of focusing on the “when” question. If you’re missing joy and peace, you’re not trusting God. If your mind feels worn out all the time, you’re not trusting God.

The tendency to want to know about everything that’s going on can be detrimental to your Christian walk. Sometimes knowing everything can be uncomfortable and can even hurt you. I sometimes in my life tend to being impatient, frustrated and disappointed because there were things I didn’t know. God had to teach me to leave things alone and quit feeling that I needed to know everything. I finally learned to trust the One who knows all things and accept that some questions may never be answered. We prove that we trust God when we refuse to worry.

God wants us to live by discernment—revelation knowledge, not head knowledge. It’s difficult to exercise discernment if you’re always trying to figure everything out. But when you’re willing to say, “God, I can’t figure this out, so I’m going to trust You to give me revelation that will set me free,” then you can be comfortable in spite of not knowing. Trusting God often requires not knowing how God is going to accomplish what needs to be done and not knowing when He will do it. We often say God is never late, but generally He isn’t early either. Why? Because He uses times of waiting to stretch our faith in Him and to bring about change and growth in our lives.

As a Christian, we experience the presence of guilt when we sin or do something bad. After fallen into the temptation, we start having this condemnation thought in us that God is angry and whatever we have asked will not be answered.

I was surfing through my old notes and saw one of Joyce Meyer’s writing about this particular subject.

“How much time do you waste feeling bad about yourself? Whatever amount of time it is, it is too much! Even if you are not where you want to be in your walk with God, you don’t have to feel guilty and ashamed. You can rejoice that you have made some progress. Jesus, who began a good work in you, will continue developing and perfecting His work in you right up until the day of Christ’s return. When the devil attacks you with guilt and shame, you can say, “I may not be where I need to be, but thank God I am not where I used to be! God is working in me right now, and each day I improve!”

My friend, your problems are not the root. When you go through an evil day, you are like a sickly plant with sick leaves. You may have leaves of sickness, poverty, a broken marriage or depression in your life. But these are just the leaves. These are just the manifestations of the root. It would be foolish to attack the leaves because they are not the cause of your problems. We all know that there’ll be no leaf if there is no root.

Joseph Prince in one of his preaching discussed something similar in dealing with the spirit of condemnation.

When there’s condemnation, there’ll be fear. When there’s fear, there’s going to be stress. And when there’s stress, there’ll be manifestations of the curse.

Now, if you disagree with me that the root cause is condemnation, let me refer you to Genesis, the book of beginnings.

Do you know that Adam was planted in the midst of a finished work? Everything was prepared for him. But the devil told him that he needed to do something to qualify for all the things he had already qualified for. The devil gave him a mistaken identity. He said, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4–5)

The truth is that Adam was already like God! But Adam believed the devil, ate the fruit and fell. And the curse came.

Before there was poverty, sickness and death in Adam’s life, there was stress. How do we know that? Well, God said, “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread…” (Genesis 3:19) And sweat speaks of stress and self-effort.

But if you go deeper, you will find that there was fear. Do you know what Adam said to God when God asked him where he was? He said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (Genesis 3:10) Adam was afraid. He was fearful. So the deeper root of stress is fear. But before he was fearful, he felt condemned.

Let’s take a minute to digest this post, as we go into our daily activities today.

We all go through hardship and experience pain in our lives. And we have a choice to make about how we will respond to it. We can either “settle” in it and let it determine the quality of life we have, or we can trust God to heal us and take steps of faith to go through the process of restoration.

Joyce Meyer endured years of horrific abuse at the hands of her father, yet she made a determined decision to trust God to heal and restore her soul.

Whatever your story may be, God can use the hardship you’ve endured to make you stronger than you’ve ever been! So, don’t give up – receive everything God has for you!

When people move, change jobs, lose relationships and thousands of other types of changes they are under a certain amount of pressure. Change means dealing with the unknown. We like to have all our ducks in a row and to know exactly what’s happening each step of the way. When something changes, things are different. This can be threatening as well as taxing. Change always requires more of our attention.

For instance, when we are developing new relationships with people, we must learn how they react in every situation. What things do they like? What do they dislike? What is acceptable to say to them? What is not? Will they get offended if we tease them?

Getting to know someone demands much more of our energy than what is required to simply be with a good friend we have known for a long time. The stress this creates can shorten our fuse in other areas.

In fact, any kind of change can add stress to our lives, which can make us irritable and tense. Some women, for example, are difficult to live with during their monthly cycle. Why? Because their bodies are changing and they feel difficult. If they don’t get more rest and avoid potentially stressful situations, they are more vulnerable to conflict during this time. Within a few days they are able to handle wonderfully something that they could not handle at all during the time of their physical changes.

The same is true for women who are going through the change of life. Their bodies are undergoing drastic changes, and often middle- aged women find that their bodies can no longer bounce back the way they did before. These physical changes affect some women more than others, but for many, it’s a season of change that can open doors for strife in relationships.

If a woman’s patience level is low and the noise level in her home is high, she may get angry. Things she was quite satisfied with before may suddenly become unacceptable. If her husband does not give her the affection she desires, she may be more easily hurt, and so withdraw and act in ways that her family is not used to. Her need for affection apart from sex may increase during this time. She wants to be held, but nothing more.

In order to avoid conflict during such a stressful change, it helps for a woman to remember that her husband cannot read her mind. She needs to remember that she is changing, but her family is just the same as always. They do not feel the way she does and should not be expected to understand her without some education.

When i was experiencing a change in my life, i started talking to myself, an heart to heart conversation with myself. Do not allow change to disorient you to the point that it causes strife.

Some people have difficulty when their church or organization undergoes some kind of change. Perhaps the pastor feels that God is leading his church into an international missions outreach program. Some members of his congregation may think it’s great, while others may feel that an inner city outreach program would be better. When people fail to realize that many of their feelings are based on their own opinions and preferences, they can quickly open a door fro strife by vocalizing their disagreement. It’s a mistake to assume that a leader is not following God’s will just because you don’t agree personally with a change he or she makes. This can cause an unbelievable amount of conflict and destruction in a church.

Whenever you are facing changes of any kind, remember the devil will try to take advantage of you. He hopes to catch you off guard so you will let him in without realizing what’s happening.

That’s why, if your workplace, church, or some other organization you are involved with undergoes a change that you dislike, the wise thing to do is to give it some time to see how the change really affects you. Give things a chance to settle. If after the period of waiting you still feel the same way, talk to the person responsible for the change. Once you understand the situation and why the change was made, your entire outlook may change.

If you’ve done this and find that you still can’t be happy with the change, consider leaving, but leave in peace. Do not gossip and complain to others. Do not leave assuming that everyone else is wrong. What they are doing may be right for their business, church, or organization, but not right for you. We are to give one another liberty and not be judgmental.

Another kind of change that can open the door to strife occurs during those times when God is dealing with us. When the Lord is dealing with us on the inside, He intends to bring change on the outside. These changes are designed to bring progress, and satan will always fight progress.

When you really know that God loves you, you can conquer anything. You feel valuable, you become bold, and you realize you don’t have to be afraid of making mistakes or failing. You know you have a purpose in life!

Knowing that God loves you unconditionally will also remove the fear from your life, and it will make it difficult for Satan to load you up with guilt and condemnation every day.

Even when the world tries to make you feel like there’s something wrong with you, remember that the first thing God gives you when you receive Christ is righteousness. You’re right with Him, and it doesn’t matter whom else you might be wrong with.

Believe that you’re righteous in Christ by saying, “God, I know that you love me. I trust You. I know You’re going to take care of this. It’s going to work out good.”